WEBVTT - Bugs Under The Skin 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:14.280 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.840 your Mind. My name is Robert Lane, and I'm Joe McCormick. Robert. 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.920 What's the weirdest thing you ever got stuck up your nose? Oh? 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:23.759 I think I've been very fortunate. I know plenty of 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.920 other people who have tales of siblings getting odd objects 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.000 lodged up their nostrils, being a marble, or I think 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.760 my brother in law had a piece of carpet stuck 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.240 up there something. You know, you hear all these stories, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.760 and luckily, I don't think I've ever had anything, um, 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.200 anything stuck in my nose. So unfortunate in that regard. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.959 You know, your mention of the marbles makes me think 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:47.760 about did you ever see that old episode of the 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.960 show Home Movies where their take on the like judas 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.240 pre supplemental messages thing is. There's a rock band who 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.319 I think does a does a public service announcement song 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.520 called don't put Marbles in your nose, but it also 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:04.120 keeps put them in there. Now, I think that the worst, 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.520 especially like childhood experience of anything going into an unexpected 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.000 orifice would be um when I had some sort of 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.440 small insect fly into my ear. Oh really, yeah, which 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.160 which the main distressing thing is that a little bug 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.480 once it gets inside your ear is it's extremely loud. 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.560 So I do. I do remember that quite clearly. It's 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.679 looking at the outside from the inside, it's a horrible feeling. Yeah. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:31.480 And I remember like my dad was there and he 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.280 jumped in and I guess it happened at the house 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.560 because they had some like rubbing alcohol and like they 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:39.160 poured a little bit of that into my ear and 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.720 that took care of it. Well, that experience is going 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.360 to be a great jumping off point for our discussion today, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.720 because I think we should start off by playing one 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:48.720 of my favorite games that we play on this show, 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.400 which is go into old medical journals and read some weirdness. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.160 Oh yes, So I want to talk about a case 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.080 report that was published in December of eighteen thirty in 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.000 the medical journal The Lancet. This is a truly disturbing report. 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.880 So if you if you get picked out easily, you 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.440 know fair warning. So let us read from the Lancet. 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.160 A farmer's wife, twenty eight years of age, residing in 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.040 the neighborhood of mets had for a long time been 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:19.280 affected with an unpleasant itching sensation in the nose with corrisa, 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.519 which means running nose, to which symptoms. In the year 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.960 eighteen seven, violent headache exceeded so that she was at 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.600 length obliged to apply for medical aid. The headache was 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.560 irregularly intermittent, and generally began at the root of the nose, 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.200 in the middle of the forehead, or at the right 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.160 frontal region, extending thence first to the right side and 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.440 then over the whole head. The attack was accompanied by 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.720 a great discharge of tears, and sometimes even nausea and vomiting. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.040 The features were forcibly distorted, the jaws firmly closed, and 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.200 the eyes and ears so very sensible that she could 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.440 not bear the least light or any noise. At other 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.440 times became delirious, pressed the head between her hands, and 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.640 ran about in a state of distraction. The pain was, 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.680 according to her statement, like the strokes of a hammer, 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.200 or as if something was perforating the skull, and the 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.480 fits generally returned about twelve times in twenty four hours. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:22.360 Sometimes the headache continued uninterruptedly for several days. The corsa, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.720 or running nose again existed during the whole period, and 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:30.079 the discharge was occasionally very feted and mixed with blood. Okay, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.560 so we're starting off pretty gross already. This poor woman 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.680 is suffering these terrible chronic symptoms. She's got the headache, 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.120 she's got the swelling, she's got the sensitivity and the 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.080 eyes and the nose and all that. Uh, and then 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.560 she's also got this discharge mixed with blood. It's always 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.360 distressing in any case to have fetid discharge. The idea 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:53.320 that it's fetted is very worrisome. Okay, So continuing, some 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.280 medicines were employed, but no regular plan of treatment was followed, 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.760 and it was not before a twelve month suffering that 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:04.120 this singular affection terminated after the expulsion of a worm 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.120 from the nose, which moved with rapidity and when placed 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.080 in water, remained alive for several days. It was afterwards 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.120 killed by being put in alcohol and then sent to 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.080 Monsieur Mareschal, who reported the case to the society. He 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.359 found the animal to be more than two inches in 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.400 length and one line in breadth, and I looked that up. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.800 Apparently a line is a unit of measure. That was 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.800 not very well standardized. It probably means like a tenth 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.280 of an inch or twelfth of an inch, so not 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.039 not very wide, um, but two inches in length. It 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.920 had too antenna, was so not not a proper worm, right, 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.680 not a proper worm. Was of yellowish color, flat, and 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.120 consisted of sixty four rings on each of which were 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:50.279 two legs. So definitely not a worm. Uh. Mr Marshal's 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:55.600 subsequently transmitted the insect to Messieurs Holandra and Roussel, who 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.720 ascertained that it was a skulla pendra electrica. Okay, so 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.919 if had two legs per segment. Yeah, that sounds an 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.080 awful lot like a centipede. Right, you are, Robert, this 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.560 is a centipede we're talking about. This report alleges that 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.640 this woman had this chronic condition for more than a year, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.680 which was alleviated when she finally blew a centipede out 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:22.520 of her nose. Still, that's got to be pretty satisfied. Yeah, yeah. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.520 Talked about what is the is there a word for that? 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.960 The psychological thing where like people are obsessed with, like 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.279 a removing objects from their body, the satisfaction people get 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.120 from like picking a huge booger, or from from pooping 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.320 a large poop I don't know, but or popping a 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.600 pimple too. Yes, I thought about this on and off 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.400 for years, and I would love to explore it in 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.599 an episode if there is enough material out there about it, 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.960 because clearly it is an obsession, like their whole video 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.960 channels on YouTube associated with with this sort of thing. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.600 And um yeah, And when I hear people talk about 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.600 imagine the virtual realms willn't happen in the future, and 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.400 I'm thinking, well, yes, you're gonna have your obvious sex 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.279 and violence oriented uh experiences, but they're gonna be like 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:12.320 whole virtual realms, just just devoted to the popping of 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.839 of surrealistic pimples. Yeah, what is the grand theft auto 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:20.000 of like visceral body perching experiences? Yeah? Before I forget, 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.159 I do want to give a hat tip because I 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.479 came across this story on the blog of a British 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.920 writer named Thomas Morris, who covers a lot of horrifying 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.080 medical history and is definitely worth following if you're interested 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.479 in this kind of stuff, So shout out to Morris, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.080 who we will return to again in a minute. But anyway, 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.040 back to the centipede coming out of the nose. So 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.760 there are probably some good reasons to question the details 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.760 of this report. Right, just because it was published in 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.720 a medical journal like the Lance, it doesn't mean it's 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.320 necessarily true, especially this far back in history. But we 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.720 can we can come back to that. So the the 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.040 insect alleged here, it's not actually an insect. It is 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:59.920 a centipede. It's the skull of Pendra electrica, reportedly bioluminescence centipede, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.599 according to a catalog by Bozard in Nature in eight 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.920 quote a well known luminous insect. Again not an insect, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.200 but well known luminous insect whose light is but rarely 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:15.800 seen owing to the insect living underground and in manure heaps. Okay, 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:17.280 so that's how it would have seen what it was 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.800 doing up in her sinuses maybe, or that's maybe that's 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.120 how it ended up there, like she was snorting manure. 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.120 There you go. But the bottom line is this, this 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:29.720 report is that a woman had a glowing centipede living 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.160 in her nose for over a year, which is a 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.800 bit far fetched. Yeah, I think so, but I mean, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.360 it's impossible to know for sure, but I'm I have 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.240 a lot of doubts. But Yeah, so I wanted to 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.520 explore more and then later we'll get into the more 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.040 general territory. I think of Creepy Crawley's getting into body orifices, 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.760 and I think we're going to be focusing primarily not 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.760 on things that are saying obligate parasites, because that's a 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.240 more trodden ground. Right, you might understand why, like say 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.440 leech could get into the human anus because it's seeking 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.120 that kind of environment, right, or or certainly indo parasites 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.560 that even if they're not Certainly there are plenty of 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.720 human endo parasites, but they're also are indo parasites of 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.120 other species that can end up in our bodies. And 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.440 even though they are not at home here, um, this 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.080 home is very much like the home they desire. Right, 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.440 So we're not so much talking about like hookworms, tape worms, 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:24.800 human bot flies and all that, which we have discussed 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.920 in other episodes, but we're talking more today about creatures 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.400 that don't need to be in the human body and 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.520 wouldn't normally seek it out, but somehow they at least 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.200 reportedly end up there. So coming back to the skull 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:43.800 Apendra centipedes of the genus skullopendra can be truly awesome predators. 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.839 They tend to step over what is for me one 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.800 of the most shocking and unpleasant of lines, which is 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:55.080 when invertebrates prey on vertebrates. That's something something about that 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.040 always feels backwards and scary and not okay, I mean, 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.040 I mean part of it perhaps is that. And I 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.480 feel like this is a kind of an undercurrent to 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:09.200 to this earlier example is that invertebrates. Invertebrates will undoubtedly 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:14.000 feast upon vertebrates. You know they are there, They're going 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.000 to be some of the primary devours of our of 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.920 our deceased form, and and certainly older generations that were 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:26.880 more associated and more closely aligned with physical death, they 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.360 would have witnessed this more often, both in the bodies 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.160 of animals but also in the in in human bodies 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.199 from time to time. But I'm talking about predation. You're 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.040 talking about you outright killing, which seems like theyre It's 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.080 it's like this is they have crossed the line, like 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.800 the line being you shall eat us when we are dead, 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.680 but now shall not do the killing right. It's supposed 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.280 to be like humans eating lobster is not lobster cousins 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.160 eating human cousins. I mean, that is clearly verboting, but 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.840 it's just not it's just not verboting. It happens in 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:01.000 nature and there are examples of skull pender that do this. So, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.720 according to a two thousand five article in the Caribbean 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:08.040 Journal of Science by Mulinary at All quote, Scullopendrid centipedes 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.640 prey on frogs and toads up to ninety five millimeters long, 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.600 small lizards, snakes up to two hundred and forty seven 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.080 millimeters long, birds up to the size of a sparrow, 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.559 and both field and house mice. So you've got some 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.160 centipedes in this genus that are getting down on birds, 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.559 they're getting down on mice, but presumably due to size restrictions. 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.720 I think if there are actually any cases of Sculla 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.840 Pendrid's getting in people's noses, it's it's going to be 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.640 not the ones that twists their many legged bodies around 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.920 mice and sparrows and eat their warm blooded mammal flesh. 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.480 Right that those would have probably be too big to 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.640 end up in the nasal cavity. Now back to Thomas Morris, 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.440 the medical history writer who brought this case to my attention. 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.560 On his blog. He writes in his blog post that 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.079 he thinks it's unlikely that the centipede would have survived 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.000 inside the woman's nasal sinuses for his long the report alleges, 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.600 which is more than a year. And I think that's 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.040 I don't know, It's one of those things where it's 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.720 hard to know for sure, But that does seem like 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.679 a likely objection to throw right right. It's like, what 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.760 would it be eating in there? Uh, could it really 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.559 like survive in there that long without getting blown out 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.520 or killed in some other way? Yeah, it just doesn't 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.040 seem sustainable. On the other hand, the report is detailed, 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.840 it's published in a reasonably reliable source, it does seem 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.320 to be reported by a physician. It just seems sort 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.960 of inherently unlikely. Then again, you know, there are all 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:32.760 kinds of things we go to. We can talk in 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.240 a minute about the possibility of hoaxes of confusion. I mean, 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.280 what if just like a centipede happened to get up 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.600 in her nose during the last day or so of 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:46.320 an otherwise bad nose inflammation period. That also seems unlikely. 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.640 But so um, this is not the only reported case 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.520 of a centipede up the nose. In fact, I came 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.640 across a totally separate case from an old medical archive, 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.520 also dug up by Thomas Morris on his blog. This 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.000 was years ago. Uh, this is from the first volume 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:07.400 of Medical Essays and Observations, published in seventeen sixty four. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:12.800 So here's this case quote. A woman of good heel constitution, 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.160 meaning she was healthy about thirty six years old, began 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.800 to complain of a fixed pain in the lower and 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.200 right side of her forehead. During the last two years, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:27.079 this pain became continual, accompanied with convulsions, often depriving her 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.960 of both her reason and rest. She was two or 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.960 three times brought to death's door by it. At the 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.840 end of four years, after trying several medicines to no purpose, 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.000 and despairing of any relief, and yet not knowing what 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.800 to do, she took to taking repeat snuff so it's 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.920 like tobacco snuff. She had not taken the snuff for 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.000 a month when behold seized one morning with a fit 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.600 of sneezing and blowing her nose. After to her great surprise, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.560 she found a worm rolled up in a little blood. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.360 This worm, when stretched to its full length was six 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.360 inches long and but two When it contracted itself, it 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.480 was two lines broad and one and a half thick, 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.319 of a coffee color, convex on one side and flat 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.280 on the other. It was of the centipede kind and 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:18.000 had fifty six feet on each side. It had two eyes, 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.000 and both its head and tail were armed with two forks. 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.319 It lived eighteen hours in an empty bottle, and three 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.120 or four hours after brandy had been put to it. 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.440 The egg that produced this worm, in all probability, was 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.199 sucked in along with the air she breathed, and carried 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.080 after to the frontal sinus, where it met with a 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.480 proper need us, meaning nest, to give it both growth 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:43.920 and increase. All right, Well, at least we have a 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.480 on a hypothesis here of how it could have wound 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.640 up there, right, Maybe, I mean that seem well, she 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.400 sucked in the eggs somehow and it hatched in there. 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.200 That also, I don't know. I'm not a centipede expert. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.600 That seems a little bit unlikely, but it sounded like 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.280 the The implication here was that it might the egg 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.439 might have been in the snuff. At any rate, there's 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.800 there's at least a there's a there's an attempt at 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:09.720 explaining how it wound up in there. It's not like, 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.760 oh God has has put a centipede in thy head. 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:17.560 It is clearly a spontaneous generation of centipedes. Right, clearly 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.440 we have we have a theory about it. We have 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.480 an hypothesis about how it could have ended up in there, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.440 and then the story of how it ended up coming out. 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.480 It's about to get weirder. Guess what the reporting physician 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:32.200 recommends as a treatment for centipede sinus blowing, blowing one's nose. Nope. 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.440 Monsieur Letra, who related the story, advises in all such 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.560 stubborn cases as will not submit to either external or 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.040 internal means, to come to the trapan which may be 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.240 employed with all safety. That's right, trepanning if the insect 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.440 won't come out. Now, we've talked about trepanning on the 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.080 podcast before. What what's going on here? You bring out 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.800 the drill, that's right, we're talking. Usually usually the idea 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:57.640 would be we're going to drill a hole in the 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:02.400 skull to relieve pressure into uh and and therefore a 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.080 relieve you of your symptoms. But I guess this is 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.360 the idea of like, Okay, it needs that centipede needs 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.560 out of your head. It's not coming out through the 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.400 naturally occurring gateways. We shall make a new gateway in 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.640 the head for the centipede. Right, I mean this is 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:17.680 almost like the centipede is kind of taking the role 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.440 of the stone of madness in the medieval form here. Uh. 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.240 Though again I want to allow I feel this is unlikely. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.840 It's not impossible lady had a centipede in your sinus. Uh. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.680 He also recommends using oil and acrid plants to force 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.520 it out. That maybe seems more reasonable. That would be like, 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.160 let's try that first. Yes, let's let's check those off 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:40.640 the list first. Okay, that's not all. I feel like, 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.760 who's the Who's the game show host who says that's 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.600 not all. You're gonna get more prizes? I don't know. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:50.640 The cat in the hat says that, okay, I might 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.800 a game show host, the cat in the hat, I 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:54.200 will be the cat in the hat and said, that's 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.320 not the last of the centipedes up the noses, but 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:00.200 we got more for you, including with more tobacco associate ship. 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.040 So with the snuff third case documented right, alongside the 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.040 first one in this In this source from the eighteenth century, 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.000 Monsieur Malow reported that one of the king's household troops 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.240 complained for three years of an acute pain in the 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.520 left frontal sinus, which extended to the eye of the 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.480 same side, so as to endanger his losing it. He 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.120 had also a buzzing noise in his ear to relieve 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.600 which he had some oil of sweet almonds put into it, 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.360 And in two days after he perceived in his left 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.960 nostril and itching and stinging, as if something moved there, 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.000 which he could not discharge, but by putting his finger 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.320 into his nose, when behold, he pulled out a worm, 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.240 which ran swiftly on the palm of his hand, though 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.320 covered with a viscous matter and snuff of which this 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.120 gentleman took plenty. This worm was put into a tobacco 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.640 box with snuff in it, where it lived five or 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.280 six days. All the patients complaints ceased after this worm 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.600 came away. The only difference between this and the former 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.320 is this this worm was six lines only long, and 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.920 had but one hundred feet, but there was this singular 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.000 in both cases. The former was thought to be expelled 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.800 by the use of tobacco snuff, whereas this subsisted three 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.760 years with a plentiful use of the same weed, and 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.080 after its expulsion lived five or six days on the 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.000 same all right, So the idea here is that the 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.439 centipede lived for years in this guy's head because he 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.640 kept putting snuff in there, and it was eating the snuff. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.199 It seems to be at least partially the implication. I 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.720 don't know about eating the snuff. There seemed to be 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.440 multiple reasons to doubt the story, especially if you're taking 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.959 on that detail about the last one, like surviving by 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.639 eating tobacco. Tobacco, of course, contains nicotine, which is a 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.640 powerful poison. Like so many of the drugs that humans 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:50.400 consume on purpose recreationally, nicotine is supposed to discourage animals 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.080 from taking the from consuming the plan and this is 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.280 one of the reasons nicotine can be used as a 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.440 natural pesticide. However, I do want to take a really 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.399 brief digression just to point out unfascinating creature I came 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.800 across here that does survive on tobacco and nicotine, and 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.960 that is the man Duca Sexta Robert do you know 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.159 about this one. I no, I wasn't familiar with the 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.199 man Duca sexta. Oh, this is great. So this is 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.600 a moth of this finger day family and in its 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.800 larval stage, so meaning as a caterpillar. This species is 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:23.000 sometimes known as the tobacco hornworm. So the tobacco hornworm 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.800 eats the leaves of the tobacco plant. And the horn 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.359 hornworm has a special gene called c yp six B 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:34.000 forty six that allows it to metabolize nicotine. And now 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.199 there's a twist. It doesn't just metabolize the nicotine. It 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.440 uses this tobacco in its diet to produce a chemical 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.639 defense sometimes referred to in the literature as toxic halitosis. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.359 It's killer tobacco breath. And so when the hornworm is 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.080 threatened by a predator like a wolf spider, it can 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.800 defend itself by releasing nicotine through pores in its skin, 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.320 which drives away the predator. And this has been confirmed 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.760 by research that found that hornworm is fed on low 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.200 nicotine food were more susceptible to being attacked by wolf spiders. 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.200 But at the same time, I do not think that 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.920 a tobacco hornworm was in this guy's sinus, right, yeah, yeah, 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.080 there's a big difference between this this larva that is 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.480 uh you know, clearly it has evolved to feed on 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.000 the leaves of this plant versus the predator that is 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.080 the centipede. Okay, so we got doubts about all these reports. 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.960 But that that's three centipede in the nose reports. Now 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.040 you know what. I found one more old centipede in 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.880 the nose report. This one from the Journal of Laryngology 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.000 and Ontology by W. P. May M E y j 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.679 E S. I don't know how to pronounce that, but 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.080 I think this is a report from Amsterdam. And this 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.280 is from and this report goes a woman farm worker 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.920 from the countryside appeared to the physician with the complaint 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.680 of a headache over the right eye that had persisted 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.919 for months, combined with a chronic running nose. The doctor 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.879 did not immediately detect any major problems except for stuff 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.000 swelling in the nasal cavity and conjunctivitis or you know, 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.480 inflammation of the eyes. So to help less in the 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.400 swelling go down, the doctor ordered menthol with boric acid 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.080 for the woman to snuff up. Uh. Man, every time 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.879 you read these You're just like, wow, these old treatments 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.560 are boric acid. Um. But so she snuffed it up. 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.840 A few days later, the woman returned. Uh. After she 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.399 has snuffed up the menthol and the boric acid, she 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.760 has a fit of sneezing and quote found in her 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.399 handkerchief a small insects still alive. She had put it 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.040 in some brandy and took it to me. The insect, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.880 which was about seven millimeters long, turned to be a centipede. Uh. Centipede, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.879 of course, is not an insect, but uh. This report 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.280 says after the centipede was sneezed out, all the woman's 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:50.520 symptoms went away. So it's difficult to tell how much 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.159 stock we should put into these stories about centipedes in 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:57.000 the human body, apparently like reported by physicians to real 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.760 medical journals and publications, uh and on. Fortunately, as we 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.719 will explore in the rest of this episode, it is 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.800 not in principle impossible for insects, centipedes, and other small 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.879 creatures to get inside a person's cranial cavities. That does happen, 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.520 and we'll discuss more later. At the same time, these stories, 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.480 at least some of them, seem kind of suspicious for 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.160 the quality of how long the centipede was supposedly alive 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.920 inside the human Maybe not impossible, but it's definitely questionable. 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:28.760 They also to me, at least, I don't know if 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.280 you've got the same feeling, Robert. They call to mind 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.080 the story of Mary Toft, the eighteenth century englishwoman and 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:39.400 first class hoax artists who had doctors and surgeons convinced 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.280 that she was repeatedly giving birth to rabbits. Oh yes, 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.359 I remember this story, and apparently she really damaged some 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.000 medical reputations because she had some some guys on on 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:51.439 the line saying like, oh, yeah, I saw it. This 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.920 lady gave birth to like rabbit parts and like part 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.280 of an eel and parts of a cat, which if 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.840